ASSESSING SPOKEN PRODUCTION: A LEARNERS’ GUIDE TO USING ‘PECHA KUCHA’ PRESENTATIONS IN THE UNIVERSITY LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

This best practice is
part of a suite of language assessment activities designed within the context
of the E-Lengua project and implemented at Trinity College Dublin’s
undergraduate institution-wide language programme Designed to assess speaking
and writing skills within the Blackboard Learn virtual learning environment,
three new teaching and assessment activities were developed in order to promote
engaged and interactive language learning and assessment supported by the use
of innovative ICT activities within a higher education context. The Blackboard
Blog project assesses written interaction. The Pecha Kucha project assesses
spoken production. The Popplet project assesses written production. Together,
these three collaborative tasks were designed to form part of a cycle of group
projects completed over two terms of class.

Pecha Kucha provides an opportunity to tell a powerful and memorable story. The format means

that presenters need to prepare carefully their script in advance. Below you will some tips which will

help you create a seamless and professional narrative to accompany your presentation.

Find your topic. Some topics work better than others in terms of the time available (6 minutes, 40

seconds) and the format (visual slides accompanied by a spoken script).

Think about your overall message before you start, what is your key point? Create a 'topic sentence'

which summarises the aim of your Pecha Kucha presentation before you start.

Create a beginning, a middle and an endto your script. Start with a personal story or anecdote to

draw in your audience. Plan in advance how you will end your presentation – try to end on a high

point!

Working backwards, create a story arcwhich contains a few structured sections which will take your

listener from knowing nothing to knowing your key point. It may be helpful to use two or three

sections (like the acts in a play or the verses in a poem).

Try to deliver your presentation byusing a narrative structure such as before/after, cause/effect,

problem/solution.

At sentence level, create short statementswhich will convey your meaning with more impact than

overly long or ‘wordy’ clauses.

The words which will accompany your presentation should flow from slide to slide without

interruption or hesitation. This means trying to avoid long silences, and too many ‘umms’ or ‘ahs’.

Usually a speech contains approximately 120 – 150 words per minute. Aim for a script of 750 – 1000

wordsat first, and then check your timing. When we are nervous, we tend to speak more quickly

than we intend to, which can be difficult for an audience to understand, so try to slow your speech

down a little for clarity.

Lengua enseñada

Multilingüe

Lenguas:

- Inglés

Nivel (CEFR/ACTFL)

Multinivel

Fecha de comienzo

06 / 11 / 2018

Fecha de finalización

06 / 11 / 2018

Creado en

Centre for Language and Communication Studies, Trinity College Dublin (IE)